A few things.
I'm reading through Halo: Battleborn by Cassandra Rose Clark.
It's a good little novel so far and I think there's some takeaways in it for Halo as a franchise. The novel stars four highschoolers and a Spartan. First lesson, there is a bit that's very brilliant in the beginning, where one of the students is making a film with his friend: a Godzilla-esque monster movie with scale models. Their shooting the scene of the mechanical dragon model attacking the model town is paralleled with the Covenant attacking their actual town. This scene is very true to the spirit of Halo. In a lot of the old trailers there was stuff about kids, play, make believe, action figures, and so forth. In the Starry Night trailer, the two kids are lying in the grass talking about the mystery of space, and this is crosscut with the Chief. The trailer can be read two ways: both that the Chief, having been temporarily knocked unconscious during a battle was having memories of an experience as a child, and that the battle the Chief is experiencing is some make believe by the children. The Believe trailer has, well, an action figure diorama. The fictional context is that it's depicting a literal battle, but the meta-context is that Halo is a toy. It's at once a toy, a game, and that game is like a foundation, a jumping off point, for play, for make believe ... which is in many senses of the word "real", or at least a serious business. Read Homo Ludens.
Another takeaway from Battleborn is that it seems like certain characters family members, mothers, an AI named Salome, seem to be somewhat symbolic stand-ins for the author and 343i. This is very very good. Halo was incepted by Bungie, inhabited by fans for many years, it grew under the fans and Bungie's direction, and 343i has taken the mantle. This is a lot of responsibility. I think it's important to recognize that Halo is a shared psychic space between Bungie, 343i, and the fans.
A message to 343irosoft/theHaloteam/theHaloInfiniteteam/Mic
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My advice would be to treat Halo as a kind of dream-playground. Bungie no longer inhabits and is building it, but it's spirit remains and looms large. 343i now inhabits and controls the world of Halo, in the sense that it has the power to erect new permenant structures in the psychic-space, (and tear down or mess with old sandcastles via retconns and such) and the fans who are playing in the dream-that-is-Halo can be generally divided into two groups; fans of Bungie's Halo who are maybe a bit old and crusty but who have valuable insights into what Halo is (or was) at it's core (and are dissatisfied with 343i's intepretation of Halo), and fans of Halo as a gestalt, who might be new fans or longtime fans, but who are generally satisfied with the new Halo games. These four groups should be represented in the narrative. The Forerunners have the capacity to teleport in giant alien structures into the sides of mountains, so they could be a good fit to represent 343i. Maybe part of the story could be that the Forerunner network is under new management, from a faction within the Forerunner species. I'm just spitballing. Maybe this is sappy, but I get a mild sense from the people who are now running Halo that the whole project is being headed by mothers who want to keep their kids happy. That could be represented by an as-yet-unheard-of branch of the UNSC or ONI.
Brian Reed here, I truly appreciate your kind words, thank you for typing them to me. I shall forever treasure them.
Maybe there's an occult branch of ONI that knows a deep secret of the Halo universe; that secret is never explained to the player, but the occult sub-agency in ONI is made up of women who know the universe of Halo is a game. I'm just spitballing. Bungie could be represented as another Forerunner faction, or an old human-AI ... maybe Bungie could be represented by Cortana. The Bungie-era fans could be represented by grizzled marine bastards. The new fans, by green soldiers. I'm just spitballing, but symbolizing all of these concepts would make it easy to play with, and say something about, them; which is something I think it's important for 343i to do, seeing as you've taken the mantle of responsibility for this franchise. It's important to say your piece.
I've just watched the making of the E318 trailer video
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This is a good video, and it makes me optimistic about the future of Halo. The focus on symbolism I think was a good sign. Halo has always been deeply symbolic. It's in the title itself. One point that was made in the video is about getting over fear and restraint. A couple things I see that 343i has some timidity about tackling that are core to Bungie's Halo are religion and spirituality, and the Flood. No specific commentary is made regarding any specific religion, but you can compellingly argue that Halo was propaganda for the post 9/11 Iraq war era: that the Covenant was a vague demonization of Arabic peoples and of Islam, and the UNSC was a stand-in for the U.S. military. This is something that 343i should arguably address. Is this message relevant anymore? How should it change?
haha fortnite
As we move into a global society, what threat to humanity could, or should, the Covenant represent? I think Halo's iconography is still relevant, and like any good art it communicates multiple messages (so it is not only pro-military industrial complex propaganda) but a pivot should arguably be made in regards to the characterization of the Covenant. More on that later. The Flood were absent from the last two games, and they were replaced with a strange new enemy in the Prometheans. They never really clicked with me. Before I go any further, I'll say that Bungie's ways are a mystery to me, and I think it would be valuable to talk to Bungie's deep insiders about the mysteries of Halo. I am an outsider, interpreting from the outside ... but the Flood are deeply important to Halo. My hot-take is that they represent Consciousness of Pain, eternally, and agressively (wanting to spread that eternal pain), like the Cenobites from Hellraiser, or Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
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Something that was stressed in that making of the E3 trailer video is that the trailer was meant to communicate hope. I would argue that the light shines brighter the deeper the darkness; a bit cliche'd and obvious, but I think Halo needs a strong villain, and it had that in the Flood, not the Covenant. The Covenant were a misdirection, and were somewhat redeemed in the course of the franchise (this is where Halo transcends being Iraq war propaganda; the Flood is a symbol for a universal threat, something that threatens both the United States of America, and her enemies ... something that threatens the world). The Halo rings somewhat represent the threat of nuclear annihilation. I'm sure you can see where this is going, the pieces are there, they just need you to put them together.
Now a rant about angels. I think they're directly relevant to the symbolism of Halo. I recently read a book that I would recommend to loremasters at 343i, called John Dee and the Empire of Angels: Enochian Magic and the Occult Roots of the Modern World, by Jason Louv. In it he explains how a magician in Queen Elizabeths court spent years talking to angels in a crystal ball. One interpretation of the events is that a type of wheat in England at the time was infected with a hallucinogenic mold; one explanation for the adventure. The truth is a bit more bizzare though. Read the book. Anyway, the Enochian angels should not be confused with traditional ideas about angels. Think of them as different beings entirely. So those two kids in the Starry Night Halo 3 trailer talk about wondering what's "out there" in space. We have positive ideas about a celestial hierarchy in our culture: a general notion that there exists a God and his angels, and that they rule over everything. This will require some retcon, but I would like to argue that the Covenant should represent the Enochian angels, the Forerunners should represent the "highest" angels, and the Flood should represent their God. The Forerunners should also be cross symbolized with the Engineers from Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. That's highly relevant: the Engineers created the Alien species to destroy humanity, and the Alien species ends up destroying the Engineers. So here's the deal with the Enochian angels, or my understanding of it. Imagine an angel shows up in your room one night. It's beautiful and terrifying and does stuff like manifest fires that don't burn and strikes down demons that appear with a sword, and so on. The angel tells you how to summon it to converse with it, so you can learn God's will.
same
You summon the angel a few nights later, like it tells you, and it shows up, but this time, a higher angel shows up and smites the lower angel, explaining that it was an evil spirit trying to decieve you. The lower angel's appearance changes to that of an ugly demon and it scampers away in fear. This process repeats itself about forty times; each time you communicate with a being higher and higher up the celestial hierarchy, and each time, the lower being was revealed to be a demon the whole time. Finally the fortieth angel explains that it's time for you to meet God, and you find out that these "angel's" god is a terrible dragon, the dragon of myth, encircling space. The dragon eats you. That is, what I would argue, what Humanity should be up against in Halo. The dragon is the Flood, eternal concsciousness of pain, the Forerunners worship the Flood (like the Engineers seem to do in Alien: Covenant), and the Covenant are essentially a cabal of decieving celestial beings who worship the Forerunners.
Now here's the real twist; the Covenant are actually trying to protect humanity from knowledge (both in the literal and experiential sense) of the Flood (eternal consciousness of pain) but their method of protecting us is to kill us, to prevent us from becoming assimilated by the Flood. So, we're forced to defend ourselves from the celestial hierarchy, and the Gravemind which rules it.
This is all a bit of a paraphrase of John Dee and the Empire of Angels (which I would highly recommend to the teams working on Halo), mixed with my thoughts about Halo, but I hope it helps. A villain like this would make the UNSC, which in my view represents the positive aspect of the global culture we've created, and the Spartans, very clearly noble and a force for good.
What the fuck?
343 INDUSTRIES
go on
is this an AI? wtf
Another thing about the angels, John Dee, in his interaction with the 40 angels of the heirarchy essentially opened himself up to the influence of Space Satan (if we are to believe the mythology that surrounds him). What this could mean for Halo, is that the Gravemind is something that can spontaneously evolve in a person through meditation or extreme mental duress ... maybe this is how the Forerunners created the Flood(?) I'll leave that up to the lore guys. What this could mean is that any human being has the potential to spontaneously evolve into a Flood or a Gravemind. This is relevant social commentary as well ... we saw a tragic attack in New Zealand just a few days ago that was the result of a young man being alone with his festering and dangerous thoughts: he was driven into suicidal and homicidal resentfulness. Maybe something in the atmosphere on the Halo ring that the UNSC is exploring in Halo Infinite can cause humans to spontaneously evolve into Flood, given the right mental state. Perhaps that mental state is the kind of fear and despair that the Marines have in Halo: Combat Evolved when initially faced with the Flood. So ... like a Marine loses it while up against the awe inspiring angelic technology of the Covenant, and his head transforms into a Flood spore. I dunno. I'm spitballing.
What this would mean also is that in the space Ecosystem, the Covenant (angels) function as a celestial mechanism to keep humans human. Sure we live in fear of the invaders from deep space, but it's better to be fighting them, than to be fighting the Flood (this is a tenant of the Covenant religion) so they fight us. Spitballing, but I hope you can see I'm trying to inject some of the mystery and some of the horror that was core to Halo, back into it.
What the fuck is this blogposting? Is this what the halo community is like?
>Brian Reed here
Sorry for being Reddit, but prove it.
And this is where I think Halo is really valuable, and why I'm glad 343i is continuing it. It allows us as a species to explore the ideas that scare us: to grapple with our existential dread, and step away from it. If we can play with these concepts (some of the most scary ideas) we can put them in the toybox when we're done, and grow up. We don't need to be afraid of the monsters in the dark, because we are descended from them and we can defeat them, those eternal dragons, but the fight is constant; the fight to protect and maintain the state of compassion and humanity itself. The Jihad of the soul.
So I hope all of this is useful. I'm really just a halo fan and kind of an idiot. I'm looking forward to MCC on PC and am excited to see what you do with Infinite.
yes
Sure, I was the lead writer for Halo 5: Guardians by 343i.
The halo community is also one of the most ass hurt ones after 343, never have I seen other communities go to these lengths to shit on the bad games or straight up deny their existence.
So can you re-explain to me why you didn't have the Didact as the main villain of Halo 5?
How could halo go from literally the best online community to the worst in the release of a single game?
This, they may be worst than what the Metroid community was before Samus Returns.
This is the kind of turbo autism I come here for.
Cause Halo fans have ridiculously high standards (for good reason after halo 3). Also people don’t like the new lore 343 is making.
It took several games though, ODST was seen as a cash grab, Reach split the community, Halo CEA pissed everyone off by using Reach's mp, Halo 4 split the community further, Halo MCC made many old fans who only liked Halo CE-3 move to PC, Halo 5 pissed off fans of Halo campaigns worse than Halo 2 did while Classic fans bitch about enhanced mobility since they didn't have anything else to do.
Basically, Halo fans are 2D Metroid fans.
Enhanced mobility is actually cancer. Sure, you move faster, but all the maps are so stretched out to balance it you effectively move at the same speed as before, except now you can't aim 360 while doing so.
He was killed off in some comic that I was told to read before writing, but I never bothered because it didn't seem important.
thanks fren
So what you're telling me is that you didn't make the Didact the main antagonist of Halo 5 because you didn't consider him important to the plot? Then how the hell is Cortana important for the plot, why even make her the main villain? Did you honestly think people wanted to play as another character over Master Chief in a mainline Halo game after Halo 2?
I had no say over the Didact's fate, but everyone knows that the 'evil Cortana' is actually a scrapped plot point in Halo 1, so that's where that inspiration came from.
And they brought in Locke because he looked cool and he was supposed to sell toys, nobody on the team actually thought people would care about his character.
I don't care who I play as, just make the writing actually not shit. Have me be at the center of events, not picking up the pieces.
Got you, Brian confirmed he was the reason for all of those decisions in several interviews.
Mainline Chief and only Chief.
No I didn't confirm I was the reason for all of those decisions, you're just making stuff up, that's crazy, you shouldn't talk crazy talk like that, it'll make people think you're crazy, crazy guy.
the run speed is actually slower than the walk speed of the older games
You said that you didn't make the Didact the main antaganist of Halo 5 because he was too irrelevant for the plot, you also said sidelining the Master Chief as bad as you did in Halo 5 was a goal because you wanted to push your shitty Spartan IVs that failed in Halo 4 along with push Locke since Palmer was a failure.